Advice Request Antivirus and Data Protection

[Chakuz]

Hello,
Which antivirus product should be used if data protection is important to you?
I read through the privacy policy of some manufacturers (Kaspersky, Norton) and found it a bit daunting what I was allowed to read...

Furthermore, I find it a bit frightening when I see which trackers some manufacturers use in their Android apps

What · Exodus Privacy

exodus-privacy.eu.org

If you check the manufacturer's website, some things don't look so rosy ...

Analyze | Webbkoll - dataskydd.net

This tool helps you check what data-protecting measures a site has taken to help you exercise control over your privacy.

webbkoll.dataskydd.net

 

[MacDefender]

Advice Request - Kaspersky and Cloud Privacy

NOTE: This is not meant to be a political/conspiracy related thread. I'd prefer to just focus on the cloud telemetry / automatic sample submission aspect. Using Kaspersky for about a week now, it's gotten me to take a closer look at the whole NSA controversy. In terms of what factually...

malwaretips.com

We talked about this subject at length in the past, lots of good information there.

In general, F-Secure and ESET are known to be more privacy friendly, though today we live in this dilemma where the cloud hybrid AVs are by far the best performing, but they all have similar privacy implications. The ones that have less privacy implications are the ones where you have to accept a manufacturer’s promise regarding how their black box cloud service works, and IMO if you really cared about privacy, you wouldn’t accept the whole “you are submitting a fingerprint of binaries from your IP address but I promise to anonymize your IP when our employees analyze the submission” statement. The only part you can control is whether or not what you submitted is anonymous. You don’t get any insight/control over the latter part, it’s purely based on trust.

 

[EndangeredPootis]

If the program is free, youre the product, period.

 

[Arequire]

This may be of interest to you:

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/avc_datasending_2014_en.pdf

It's years out-of-date and the data collection practices of the companies involved may changed since it was published, but we haven't had another report like it since so I figured I'd reference it.

And if you want my opinion: Emsisoft. It prides itself on being a privacy-conscious vendor.

 

[MacDefender]

And if you want my opinion: Emsisoft. It prides itself on being a privacy-conscious vendor.

Very very good choice too! I forgot and should have mentioned them too.

 

[fabiobr]

Thanks God new data protection law starts next month here in Brazil, I already received message from Instagram, Facebook and Kaspersky on changing somethings to adapt to it. hahahaha

 

[fabiobr]

Advice Request - Kaspersky and Cloud Privacy

NOTE: This is not meant to be a political/conspiracy related thread. I'd prefer to just focus on the cloud telemetry / automatic sample submission aspect. Using Kaspersky for about a week now, it's gotten me to take a closer look at the whole NSA controversy. In terms of what factually...

malwaretips.com

We talked about this subject at length in the past, lots of good information there.

In general, F-Secure and ESET are known to be more privacy friendly, though today we live in this dilemma where the cloud hybrid AVs are by far the best performing, but they all have similar privacy implications. The ones that have less privacy implications are the ones where you have to accept a manufacturer’s promise regarding how their black box cloud service works, and IMO if you really cared about privacy, you wouldn’t accept the whole “you are submitting a fingerprint of binaries from your IP address but I promise to anonymize your IP when our employees analyze the submission” statement. The only part you can control is whether or not what you submitted is anonymous. You don’t get any insight/control over the latter part, it’s purely based on trust.

Exactly, we can't separate one thing from another. Kaspersky has one of the best cloud protection because it collects a lot of data, we can't be ingenuous about that.

 

[Ink]

Microsoft Defender* or Emsisoft.

Don't forget the data collection (telemetry, diagnostic, personalization, troubleshooting etc.) by Microsoft for Agreeing to use Windows 10, and Google's policy for using an Android device.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

F-Secure, Emsisoft, Bullguard

 

[MacDefender]

Exactly, we can't separate one thing from another. Kaspersky has one of the best cloud protection because it collects a lot of data, we can't be ingenuous about that.

I do have to say, my opinion is that Kaspersky is collecting the amount of data they protect to provide really good cloud protection, not to profit off selling your data or to provide it to government agencies / third parties. Of course, there’s little to no way of knowing for sure.

What we do know for sure is that KSN is possibly the best performing cloud, and one of the few where you can easily demonstrate yourself that one behavior blocker hit results in other instances of Kaspersky blocking the binary statically (UDS signature name) seconds/minutes later. Many others claim this ability but I’ve rarely if ever seen it happen in the real world.

 

[Chakuz]

Thanks for the suggestions.
But what I am asking myself - why is the Emsisoft homepage building so many requests to Google?
A company whose privacy is important shouldn't do that, or?

Analyze | Webbkoll - dataskydd.net

This tool helps you check what data-protecting measures a site has taken to help you exercise control over your privacy.

webbkoll.dataskydd.net

 

[MacDefender]

Almost everyone uses Google Analytics, I don’t see that as much of an issue. Are you buying their product or their website?

 

[Chakuz]

The fact that Google Analytics is used by almost everyone does not make the situation any better (is also not the only point of criticism ...)

εxodus

reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org

- it can be done without it

Analyze | Webbkoll - dataskydd.net

This tool helps you check what data-protecting measures a site has taken to help you exercise control over your privacy.

webbkoll.dataskydd.net

 

[Ink]

I don't understand the point to scrutinising a website because it connects to Google Tag Manager / Analytics.

This site connects to Google, yet members here discuss privacy and security on a daily occurrence. So perhaps you'll want to deactivate your account because it "can be done without"?

Try and make us understand.

Microsoft Defender* or Emsisoft.

Don't forget the data collection (telemetry, diagnostic, personalization, troubleshooting etc.) by Microsoft for Agreeing to use Windows 10, and Google's policy for using an Android device.

TO ADD - You're already sold your soul to Microsoft, by installing Windows 10 and it is by far not the best in terms of data collection. They do however release transparency reports based on the sent data.

 

[Chakuz]

Sorry my english is not so good, i hope you and other people here in this Forum understand me ^^

I don't understand the point to scrutinising a website because it connects to Google Tag Manager / Analytics.

A company should - if it cares about the privacy of its users - not use Google Analytics on its website or have Facebook Tracker in the Android app...
Doesn't inspire confidence in me

This site connects to Google, yet members here discuss privacy and security on a daily occurrence

True, but this practice should also be criticized. Still - a forum is a forum and a software a software

can be done without

Matomo - The Google Analytics alternative that protects your data

Matomo's the Google Analytics alternative that protects your data and your customer's privacy. A powerful web analytics platform with 100% data ownership.

matomo.org

 

[Arequire]

- it can be done without it

Analyze | Webbkoll - dataskydd.net

This tool helps you check what data-protecting measures a site has taken to help you exercise control over your privacy.

webbkoll.dataskydd.net

That's specific to the German site. The UK variant makes use of Google Analytics/Tag Manager: